Trump news: Fresh calls for impeachment as House condemns president's racists attacks on Democratic congresswomen
House votes to condemn president's racist tweets
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Your support makes all the difference.The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to condemn Donald Trump’s tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their countries of origin.
The vote was 240-187 and was solidly opposed by Republicans. It came after Mr Trump and top congressional Republicans denied he is a racist and urged GOP lawmakers to oppose the Democratic measure.
The resolution says the House “strongly condemns” Mr Trump’s “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.”
The president responded angrily on Twitter after the four Democratic congresswomen he attacked in a series of racist tweets – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib - staged a press conference on Monday night strongly condemning his behaviour and calling for his impeachment.
“The Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public shouting of the F... word, among many other terrible things, and the petrified Dems run for the hills.”
With Republicans still desperate to avoid being drawn on the matter, Representative Omar attacked President Trump’s “white nationalist agenda” and said: “It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery of our constitution. It’s time for us to impeach this president.”
Immediately after the resolution vote, a Texas Democrat announced he would file articles of impeachment against Mr Trump in a move that could force a politically fraught vote by the end of the week.
Under House rules, a single member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Mr Green did so twice, unsuccessfully, when Republicans controlled the House.
For now, a majority of House Democrats appear to oppose impeachment.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted launching official proceedings without broad bipartisan support.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
I thought Kellyanne Conway was lying low after ducking out on her appointment with the Judiciary Committee yesterday but here she is, banging the drum for racism on Fox News.
Somebody tell Elijah Cummings to turn on his TV.
Trump's at it again, this time quoting House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (hardly an impartial source) in his defence ahead of the lower chamber's vote to condemn.
Kellyanne Conway has claimed to reporters that she never her the president say anything "untoward" about race throughout her tenure working for him -
A meeting that was initially closed to the press in the Oval Office has just invited the pool reporters covering the White House. We'll keep you updated with the latest developments that arises from the event.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is responding to the president's latest tweets, saying he has a "racist mind" and "racist heart" -
Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the GOP is celebrating the Pennsylvania launch of Women for Trump on Twitter while touting some local economic numbers since the president took office -
As the president's racism row with "the squad" - four progressive women of colour elected to the US House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms - continues to grow, so do calls for an impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill -
Google has hit out at Donald Trump's suggestion it is committing "treason" in collaboration with the Chinese army.
The company has denied that it works with China's military in response to the claims, posted by the president in an early morning Twitter storm.
The president had echoed claims made by tech billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who suggested that Google has been infiltrated by Chinese governments and was working with them to undermine the US.
House Democrats plan for a vote this afternoon on a resolution that “strongly condemns Donald Trump’s racist comments” that four congresswomen of color should return to their native countries.
The measure says Mr Trump’s tweets Sunday “have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
The four-page resolution quotes from a 1989 speech by President Ronald Reagan that said America draws its strength “from every country and every corner of the world.” Reagan, a Republican, said that if the US ever closed its doors to immigrants, “our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”
The Democrats’ measure says the House is “committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum.”
AP
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